BAN SOUGHT ON TOBACCO TRADE HELP

Sen. Dick Durbin and three other northern Democratic senators Wednesday proposed barring the U.S. government from helping promote the sale of American tobacco products abroad.

Advancing what is likely to be an issue in the proposed tobacco settlement, Durbin (D-Ill.) said the proposed Worldwide Tobacco Disclosure Act would prevent U.S. trade officials from helping cigarette companies increase their sales abroad.

The measure also would require that cigarette packages exported from the U.S. to other countries carry U.S. warning labels, unless foreign labels are stronger.

Since the Reagan administration, the U.S. government often has used trade laws against anti-tobacco restrictions by foreign countries.

U.S. companies now sell more than $6 billion of tobacco to smokers overseas.

"In an effort to increase their market share of death and disease in foreign countries, the U.S. government should not be complicitous," Durbin said.